NHRC issues notices to Centre, CSBE, Delhi Police over paper leak

The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) on Monday issued notices to Centre, Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) and Delhi Police over paper leak of class 10 and 12 Board exams.

The Economics question paper of class XII and Maths question paper of class X were leaked on social media, hours before the examination. The Economics exam was held on March 26 and Maths on March 28.

Taking suo motu cognizance of media reports about the papers leak, the Commission has observed that prima facie, it seems the concerned authorities have failed to keep the faith of the students, intact.

Maintaining that the humiliation being faced by the innocent students is amounting to violation of their Rights to Dignity and Education, the Commission has issued notices to the Secretary, Human Resource Development (HRD) Ministry; Chairman, CBSE; and Delhi Police Commissioner and sought a detailed report in the matter within four weeks.

The NHRC also directed the HRD Ministry to inform the Commission about the steps taken regarding counselling of the aggrieved students and to make the process of conducting board examinations trustworthy and foolproof to avoid recurrence of such painful incidents in future.

The Commission observed that such instances would adversely affect the credibility of the institutions.

The CBSE announced a re-examination of the Class 12 Economics paper on April 25, while the re-test for the Class 10 Mathematics paper is likely to be conducted in July.

Delhi Police has arrested Touqeer, a tution teacher and two teachers of a private school - Rishabh and Rohit in connection with the paper leak case. The CBSE has also suspended an official named K S Rana for lax supervision.

Delhi Police's Crime Branch has questioned more than 60 people, out of which 10 are tutors of coaching centres. Also, more than 50 cell phones of students and tutors have been seized.

According to the police, a total of 53 students and 7 teachers have been questioned so far.

On March 31, Jharkhand Police arrested three people involved in the CBSE paper leak case and detained nine juveniles.